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The LBJ School Welcomes Two New Permanent Faculty Members in Health Policy and Environmental Economics

AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 16, 2013 – The LBJ School is pleased to announce the addition of Todd Olmstead, former Associate Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University’s School of Public Policy, and Sheila Olmstead, former Associate Professor of Environmental Economics at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, to the permanent faculty.

Todd Olmstead has been appointed Associate Professor of Public Affairs and James M. and Claudia U. Richter Fellow in Global Health Policy. He is also a Research Scholar at the Seton/UTSW Clinical Research Institute of Austin. Olmstead uses statistics, economics, and operations research to design, implement, and evaluate a wide variety of health care interventions and evidence-based practices. He is the health economist on several large NIH-funded grants in the area of behavioral health. He is an expert in the areas of health economics, health services research and healthcare policy.

Sheila Olmstead has been appointed Associate Professor of Public Affairs. Olmstead is an environmental economist whose current research projects examine the environmental externalities associated with shale gas development in the United States, regulatory avoidance under the U.S. Safe Drinking Water Act, the influence of federal fire suppression policy on land development in the American West, and free-riding in dam placement and water withdrawals in transboundary river basins. She has worked extensively on the economics of water resource management, focusing on water demand estimation, water conservation policy, and access to drinking water services among low-income communities. Climate and energy policy are additional topics of her research, especially with regard to the application of market-based environmental policy instruments.